The team at Matrox Graphics recently released its EpicA series of dual-
and quad-display PCI graphics cards intended for thin clients and other
mission-critical systems. According to Matrox, the products offer
“innovative, new, server-based software...to manage multi-display
configurations in remote sessions”. Supported protocols include Linux
desktop remote connection software, Microsoft RDP and Citrix ICA for
Windows. Other features include passive cooling, small form factor,
support for digital and analog monitors, low power consumption and
independent and “stretched” modes. The TC-2 and TC-2 Lite models
support two monitors concurrently, while the TC-4 model supports four.

No Starch Press is a publisher with a penchant for finding geeky niches
that other publishers won't touch, and DerEngel's Hacking the
Cable Modem is a fine case in point. This book “reveals secrets of many popular cable
modems, including products from Motorola, RCA, WebSTAR, D-Link and
more”,
sayeth the No Starchers. It is also a guide to hacking a cable modem,
installing new firmware, unblocking ports and unlocking hidden features.
One net benefit of these efforts, besides pure hacking enjoyment of
course, is an increase in bandwidth up to 20-fold. In addition, who
wouldn't be curious to know what the author, whose alias is DerEngel
(“the
angel” in German) and has been tagged as “the underground Prometheus
of super-broadband”, has lurking in his brain. The product will be
on real and virtual bookshelves in August 2006.

Wingware is now shipping release 2.1 of WingIDE, its development
environment for Guido van Rossum's masterpiece, the Python programming
language. WingIDE's purpose is to provide “powerful debugging, editing,
code intelligence and search capabilities that reduce development
and debugging time, cut down on coding errors, and make it easier to
understand and navigate Python code”. New features in version 2.1
include Visual Studio, VI/Vim and brief key bindings, Subversion
and Perforce support, improved Windows performance, named bookmarks,
breakpoint manager and call stack as list, file evaluation or selection
in the Python Shell and support for Macs on Intel. Supported platforms
include recent Intel Linux systems, Windows 2000 and later and OS X
10.3.9 or later (with X11 installed). Solaris, *BSD and other Posix
platforms are supported for those willing to compile from source code.
A free trial is available on Wingware's Web site.

First there was toast on a stick (vintage David Letterman reference),
and now Novell offers training on a stick too! SUSE Linux Enterprise
10 First Class is a new, self-contained course on a USB drive that
allows users to test the new server and desktop products on their own.
Included on the multiplatform (Linux, Windows) device are both the
learning content and an installed example of the server and desktop on a
virtual machine. Novell states that this approach “gives the student a
unique environment to study the lecture and then gain hands-on experience
using the virtual machine to do exercises”. Students can utilize the
course themselves or use it as part of an instructor-led two-day course
at various training centers. The course/device hybrid is available for
purchase at Novell's Web site.

As Linux continues to play an ever increasing role in corporate data centers and institutions, ensuring the integrity and protection of these systems must be a priority. With 60% of the world's websites and an increasing share of organization's mission-critical workloads running on Linux, failing to stop malware and other advanced threats on Linux can increasingly impact an organization's reputation and bottom line.

Most companies incorporate backup procedures for critical data, which can be restored quickly if a loss occurs. However, fewer companies are prepared for catastrophic system failures, in which they lose all data, the entire operating system, applications, settings, patches and more, reducing their system(s) to “bare metal.” After all, before data can be restored to a system, there must be a system to restore it to.

In this one hour webinar, learn how to enhance your existing backup strategies for better disaster recovery preparedness using Storix System Backup Administrator (SBAdmin), a highly flexible bare-metal recovery solution for UNIX and Linux systems.